"Miracles, Signs, and Wonders"

 “Miracles, Signs, and Wonders”

John 4:46-54

Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

First Congregational UCC, Manhattan, KS

February 27, 2022

This is a sermon in three acts. (holding up signs) Miracles. Signs. Wonders. 

ACT ONE: MIRACLES

We pray for miracles, don’t we? I mean, like, even if we are super rational people with lots of questions who talk our way out of hoping for miracles….we still pray for them sometimes, right? I know I do. When we’re not sure what else to do. When things feel hopeless. When we can’t see a way forward through a problem. When we’re desperate, we pray for miracles. weebly

Just like people have been doing for thousands and thousands of years. Just like this unnamed father in John’s gospel did. 

Miracle stories in the Bible are so hard. Because, on one hand, they are filled with good news. Wow! Healing, salvation, resurrection. It’s amazing! 

And on the other hand - wowwwwww. We have a lot of questions. 

Because what do we do with all the times we’ve prayed for a miracle and it hasn’t happened? When we pray for a person we love to be healed, but the body doesn’t cooperate? When we pray for war to cease, but the images of lives blown apart break our hearts? When we pray for the relentless attacks on LGBTQ youth and their families to end? When we pray for justice in our criminal justice system? When we pray and pray and pray, but it feels like our prayers aren’t answered.

Or when we pray and pray and pray and it seems like our prayers ARE answered. Someone gets better. A problem is solved. The phone call comes and it’s good news. Nations at war somehow miraculously DO beat their swords into plowshares and peace returns. Laws protect the marginalized. Justice is served. How do we understand all  of the miraculous goodness in the midst of a world that’s also so plagued by difficulties? 

The dictionary definition of a miracle is essentially something we don’t understand. Something that defies explanation. Sometimes we think of these things as being supernatural - beyond the laws of nature as we understand them. Of course, there are lots and lots of things about the natural world that we humans simply haven’t discovered yet, don’t understand YET. Are those technically miracles? 

This is one of those sermons that might have more questions than answers, by the way. Which seems fitting for a sermon about something that, by definition, is something we don’t understand. 

Miracles trouble us because they don’t make sense. They can seem unfair. They can seem impossible. 

Miracles sustain us because they give us hope. They delight us. They fill us with gratitude. 

Miracles keep us humble. They remind us that there really are lots of things we don’t understand. They remind us that there’s more to life than what we see right in front of our face. They keep us seeking and searching for something More with a capital M. 

The word miracle doesn’t appear much in John’s gospel. Instead, most English translations usually use the phrase “signs and wonders,” to describe miraculous events. 

ACT TWO: SIGNS

A sign is something that points to something else. A sign isn’t about itself, it’s about something beyond itself. It’s not an end, it’s a means to an end. 

We can see this at play in the story we heard today. A desperate parent comes to Jesus asking for help because his son is ill. It’s clear to us what the man’s problem is: his sick son. Jesus doesn’t exactly address the father’s problem directly, though. The man begs for Jesus to help and Jesus responds, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you won’t believe.”

It’s a puzzling response. Jesus seems out of tune with the man’s desperate request. 

Biblical scholars Amy Robertson and Bobby Williamson interpret it in this way: Jesus and the man are both working towards something here. The man’s concern is his son. Jesus’s concern, though, is something quite different: drawing human beings closer to God. And so Jesus is wondering how he can draw this father closer to the Holy. And Jesus figures the way to do that is probably by showing him a sign. [1] 

It’s almost like, “Gosh, guys. I wish you could just follow in my ways without all these signs and wonders but it seems like that’s what you need, so I guess that’s how we’ll handle this.” 

When we hear this story, I think we’re most likely to put ourselves in the place of the father. Only natural, of course, because his very human concerns make the most sense to us. But if we allow ourselves to come into this story through Jesus’s vantage point and see what Jesus is working towards here, this story takes us to a whole other place. The sign literally becomes a SIGN - pointing beyond the miracle, beyond the sign. Jesus uses the sign to direct our attention to his larger mission of building the Beloved Community here on earth. Jesus uses the sign to point to his larger message of hope, reminding us that we abide with God and God abides with us. 

It’s all very on-brand for Jesus. Whether or not we get the miracles we pray for, the truths Jesus points to with his actions in this story remain. Because in the person of Jesus, the Christ Force meets us where we are. Christ is the Word Made Flesh who draws near so we can see God more clearly. Christ is that relentless force of love incarnate who abides with us. Christ points the way to God, reminding us all that we are eternally held within the Spirit’s care. 

ACT THREE: WONDERS

Signs and wonders. They go together like peas and carrots in John’s gospel. A wonder is something that takes us by surprise. Makes us shake our heads. Causes us to rethink things we thought we knew before. There might be a feeling of astonishment or shock. An unraveling as we set aside preconceived notions and recalibrate. 

In this story, there’s a lot of wondering. A lot of unanswered questions. A lot of surprises. 

Just like in the other “miracle at Cana” story (you know, the water into wine one) the miracle isn’t clear cut. No one sees it happen. The father asks for Jesus to heal his son. Jesus replies, “Oh, man. You’re gonna need signs and wonders to believe,” and then the man begs again, “Jesus, come and help.” And then Jesus says, “Go home. Your son lives.”

And so the man sets off. He really has no way of knowing what’s going on. Jesus didn’t say, “I healed him,” or “It’s all going to be okay.” He just stated a simple fact: “Your son lives.”

And so the father travels miles and miles back home in this in-between state of not knowing. He must have been full of questions as he made the journey, wondering what had just happened in his interaction with Jesus, wondering how everything would turn out, wondering if his child was still alive. 

Before he gets home, his servants come out to meet him and tell him his son is still alive. He asks when his son started to improve and they said it was the day before, right around the time the father had been talking with Jesus. 

In this moment of connection - things come into focus. Because before they started wondering about all of this together, no one had all the information here. No one had all the pieces to the puzzle. The servants just knew that the boy was improving. The father just knew that Jesus told him to go home. When they wonder and contemplate all of this together, they come to believe that Jesus is somehow responsible for the healing. 

No one can really know what happened, of course. Because no one has all the pieces of the puzzle. There are so many things we simply can’t know, can’t understand. So many questions left unanswered. 

But this moment of connection - this moment of knowing within community feels so true and real. The way that we humans come together and tell our stories, hear each other’s stories, piece it all together and come away knowing more than we did before. Come away feeling more tightly held in the Spirit’s love. Come away feeling connected with something beyond ourselves. Come away with hope. 

I don’t pretend to understand how it all works. This story, quite honestly, may leave us with more questions than answers.

Miracles are, after all, things we really can’t explain. 

Signs point to something beyond themselves. The way Jesus is pointing to…..something bigger than we can even name. Sometimes even God seems too small a word. 

Wonder is something we do in community. We each bring our experiences, our questions, our own human selves together and we contemplate something….much better than we can even name. 

God of miracles, signs, wonders - 

we give you thanks for ancient stories that take our breath away. 

We are filled with questions and at the same time we feel the tug of your certain presence drawing us in. 

Knit us together in your love, O God. 

Show us something beyond fear and violence and war and terror. 

Mold our very lives into instruments of your peace. 

Draw us ever more fully into your ways of peace and justice and hope for all of creation. 

Let us see miracles, signs, and wonders in all the places in our world that so desperately need them. 

Amen. 

NOTES:

[1] Bible Worm podcast, episode 326.